Officer fired for second time

Bedminster officials accuse Albert Paul of lying on time sheets.

May 13, 2004|By Chuck Malinchak Special to The Morning Call - Freelance

A Bedminster Township police officer who was fired last year and then reinstated by an arbitrator's decision was fired again Wednesday night by township supervisors, who accused him of 60 more incidents of lying on time sheets.

The supervisors also voted to remove themselves as the board to conduct hearings against Police Chief Robert Glosson. The chief was suspended Jan. 14 after an investigation accused him of falsifying time sheets and gun records.

Officer Albert Paul was fired in January 2003 after he admitted slashing car tires in a 2002 incident in which a suspect accused of erratic driving refused to give Paul the car keys.

After the slashing incident, supervisors received complaints that Paul was billing the township and another employer for the same hours. He also was employed as a police instructor at Temple University and by Bucks County.

Both incidents went before arbitrator William Caldwell in March, who ruled Paul should be suspended without pay or benefits for three months for the tire slashing and nine months for the double billing. That meant Paul's suspension was up in January.

Caldwell also ruled that Paul, who earned $51,270 a year, should receive back pay from Jan. 30, 2004, and be reinstated within 30 days. The supervisors appealed that ruling in Bucks County Court and because of the appeal, township solicitor John Rice said Paul would remain fired.

The township originally accused him of 11 incidents of double billing, but then introduced 60 other incidents during arbitration, Rice said.

However, Rice said the arbitrator never took into consideration those 60 other incidents. He also said that since Paul did not respond to those accusations, that inaction is taken as a plea of no contest.

In the matter regarding Glosson, the police chief, Rice said the police tenure act requires supervisors to conduct the hearing.

That act, he said, also has a clause that allows the supervisors to excuse themselves as a hearing board "if they are aware of the allegations."

The supervisors, Rice said, believe they are "tainted" and that belief is shared by Glosson and his attorney, Sean Welby.

Since both parties share that belief, Rice said, "It is recommended you decide not to sit as a hearing board."

In place of the supervisors as a hearing board, they agreed to rehire Bethlehem attorney David Backenstoe.